2013 Dipsea: Varner again wins 'race behind the race' with fastest time

Before the 103rd running of the Dipsea began, Alex Varner didn't give himself a particularly good chance of winning the race to Stinson Beach. But there was plenty of evidence that he gave it his best shot.

Sporting a sizeable scrape on the left side of his face, courtesy of a fall on "The Swoop" along the Dipsea trail, Varner posted the best base time in the race for a record fifth consecutive year Sunday. His finish in 47 minutes, 59 seconds was good for fifth place overall and was 3:07 better than the next fastest time posted, by 2013 Drake High graduate John Lawson. Petaluma's Jared Barrilleaux, who acknowledged the chase for the top time as the "race behind the race," was just behind Lawson in 52:01.

"I got a little excited and slipped and thought I landed on my shoulder, but my face took the brunt of it," said Varner, 27, who is a San Rafael native and Branson School graduate. "It was slippery on the stairs. I really had to bide my time on those to keep a little bit more control than I have in the past."

Varner, with his past Dipsea experience, had a pretty good idea how hard it would be to win the race before it even began. The first group of runners to leave the starting line, for instance, had a 25-minute head start on him and the other scratch runners in the field. So as he was beginning his run, others in the race were as much as 3 miles ahead of him.

As he closed in on Highway 1, he knew that the top four finishers — Diane Fitzpatrick, Chris Lundy, Brian Pilcher and Hans Schmid — all were too far ahead of him to be caught.

"I know they were out there, but they had too many minutes" in a head-start advantage, Varner said. "So I ran my race. This one went better than it ever had. My legs felt good, passing was easier than I remember it. I hit the bridge faster than I have, I got to Cardiac faster and it just felt great."

Varner's performance enabled him to run away from any of the other scratch runners, including Barrilleaux.

"You ultimately race for first across the line," Barrilleaux said. "But it's kind of the race behind the race to try to compete for that top time. You know faces while you're moving. And when you start out, you try to keep pace with a couple of the top guys in the field and you know that's where the fast time is going to be coming out of.

"So you try to keep pace with a few of the top runners. ... And then, when reality sets in you kind of have to take your own pace. Then you start trying to just do the best you can. Then it becomes a race against yourself."

Barrilleaux said he lost Varner on the ascent up the stairs. From there, he wondered about being able to catch Lawson, who had a one-minute head start and finished ninth overall.

"I really went into this race looking to stay out of any trouble," said Lawson, who will run in a 3,200-meter race in a national high school meet in North Carolina next weekend. "So I was very conservative on the really treacherous parts of the course because I can't risk twisting an ankle."

That conservative approach didn't occur to Varner until he was already bruised and bloody.

Next year, he said, he hopes the trail is dry. If there's a bit more heat, that's OK with him.

"I'd rather have it like it was yesterday," Varner said, alluding to Saturday's 90-plus degree conditions. "It's harder on the older folks," he said with a wry smile. "It's harder on me, but it affects them more than me. So every year, I'm praying for 95 degree weather. It sounds awful, I know, but it's the only way us young guys have a chance."

Whether or not he improves his time or place next year, Varner said he will be back looking to extend his top-time streak to six years. And Lawson, Barrilleaux and others will be around to challenge him.

"There's always something out there to learn," Varner said. "It's different every year. You never know where you're going to hit people, where you'll get stopped. It's different every year."